[visionrehabtherapist] Re: A people-first language question
- From: "McInnis, Janet (DELEG)" <mcinnisj@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <graysjoinery@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <Maduffy@xxxxxxx>, <visionrehabtherapist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:33:41 -0400
when I google, I just google and am not really thinking too much of people
first language. I liked what Sandy said, how we treat folks is important and
speaks volumes. If you get more hits with "the blind" go for it, but, what
happens when you search vision loss or visually impaired or low vision type
terms? Where does VisionAware fall in with those keywords? Because...I run
into lots of families who are looking for info for older family members and the
word "blind" still is not in their vocabulary. We in the field use it freely
and interchangably, but not sure that persons experiencing new diagnosis of mac
degen, retinopathy, glaucoma. In fact if doctors are telling patients, rightly
or wrongly that they will not go blind, I may avoid that term altogether.
________________________________
From: visionrehabtherapist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Bill and Diane Gray
Sent: Wed 6/17/2009 9:54 PM
To: Maduffy@xxxxxxx; visionrehabtherapist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [visionrehabtherapist] Re: A people-first language question
How about educating people on why it is important to use people first language
at the beginning of your website so that both key phrases will come up in the
search.
Diane Gray
-----Original Message-----
From: visionrehabtherapist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:visionrehabtherapist-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Maduffy@xxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 7:27 PM
To: visionrehabtherapist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [visionrehabtherapist] A people-first language question
Greetings, colleagues:
This is Maureen Duffy, Editorial Director of VisionAWARE.org, a
"self-help for vision loss" web site. I need your thoughts and feedback about a
"people-first language" issue that is troubling me. At first glance, you might
think this is an esoteric request, but I assure you that it is not.
We are strictly a web-only resource, with no brick-and-mortar presence;
thus, Internet search results are very important to us. Here is my dilemma
regarding our use of people-first language, which we take great care to use
throughout our site:
If I Google a phrase such as "resources for people who are blind,"
VisionAWARE will appear on page 1 of the search results, which is good.
If I Google a phrase such as "resources for the blind," VisionAWARE is
displayed much lower in the search results, which means that potential readers
are far less likely to find our information.
A keyword suggestion tool I've used shows substantially more related
results for "the blind" than for "people who are blind." Googling "the blind"
returns roughly 19.6 million search results for that phrase and only 726,000
search results for "people who are blind." Clearly, people are more likely to
think/say/search on something related to/for "the blind" vs. to/for "people who
are blind."
Editorially, we take great care to say, "... for people who are blind
or have low vision," but that could be working against readers finding our web
site and the excellent information contained within it.
Thus my dilemma: Is it better to abandon our insistence on using
people-first language and allow more adults in need of vision rehabilitation
information find our site, or should we continue to set the example with
people-first language and languish undiscovered by many adults in need of our
information? (Perhaps the dichotomy is over-dramatized, but you get the idea.)
Your comments, ideas, and feedback are most welcome.
Thank you in advance,
Maureen A. Duffy, CVRT
Editorial Director
AWARE (Associates for World Action in Rehabilitation & Education)
Phone: 914-528-5120
e-mail: maureen.duffy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Are you aware of our web site?
www.visionaware.org <http://www.visionaware.org/>
"Self-Help for Vision Loss"
www.twitter.com/visionaware
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